Boehner agrees to two-month ‘doc fix’

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Thursday that the House will pass a two-month “doc fix,” giving doctors a last-minute reprieve from looming cuts in their Medicare payments.

The Medicare agency had already begun planning to implement a nearly 30 percent cut in payments to doctors sometime next month. But that cut will be delayed if the House successfully passes the Senate’s two-month extension. The doc fix is part of the broader bill that also extends a cut in payroll taxes.

There are still disagreements, however, over a longer-term doc fix. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement Thursday that Democrats wanted a “year-long” extension of the payroll-tax cut and Medicare payments. But the House-passed bill includes a two-year doc fix.